The country goes to the polls on October 15 and Waldemar Buda said he hoped the lower house, the Sejm, would overrule an upper house veto on state guarantees for NABE even before the new post-election parliament convenes for the first time.
Albert Zawada/PAP

Poland’s development minister has said he hopes the current lower house of parliament will deal with a bill on the establishment of a new state-owned company that will take over the ownership of coal-fired assets belonging to energy firms after the general election.

Once it is established, the new state agency, called NABE, will free the energy firms from their polluting assets, leaving them free to pull in money from investors previously hesitant to invest owing to the non-green aspects of the companies.

The country goes to the polls on October 15 and Waldemar Buda said he hoped the lower house, the Sejm, would overrule an upper house veto on state guarantees for NABE even before the new post-election parliament convenes for the first time.

“We have a discontinuity in parliamentary works (due to elections – PAP), but it does not exclude a parliamentary sitting taking care of this bill even after October 15 elections, for example,” Buda said. 

On September 7, the Senate, the upper house, cast a majority vote against a bill on state guarantees for NABE. 

Deputy Minister of State Assets Marek Wesoly suggested at an economic conference in southern town of Karpacz last week that the process of creating NABE may be delayed due to prolonged legislative process and the elections. 

Initially, Poland’s cabinet wanted to secure a final parliamentary nod for state guarantees for NABE by the end of the parliamentary term and establish the vehicle by end of the year.